DISEASES OF THE BLOOD. 97 



passage of impure blood. Sometimes a crisis occurs, one 

 or more of tlie excretory organs (bowels, liver, and skin) 

 overcomes all difficulties by its inherent energies, removes 

 impurities, and so relieves the blood. Eesolution then 

 occurs unless a relapse checks the salutary process. In 

 declining fever a lateritious sediment frequently may be 

 found in urine. Fever may be caused by any conditions 

 which interfere with due removal of matter from the 

 blood. Thus, close and ill- ventilated houses, want of exer- 

 cise, and excessive feeding all predispose to the disorder, 

 while sudden changes of temperature, long journeys, 

 exposure to draughts or to severe weather prove exciting 

 agencies. Acute inflammation of internal organs, or of 

 any other part of the body, the presence of poisonous 

 material, whether ordinary or specific, in the blood, and 

 defective action of eliminatory organs are causes of 

 the symptomatic affection, which is more frequent than 

 the simple form. Thus, in our examination of many 

 disorders we shall have to allude to complicating febrile 

 conditions, such as those which have just received notice 

 from us. It is remarkable that frequently fevers abate some- 

 what towards mid-day. Again, they may re-appear periodi- 

 cally, when they are termed intermittent, and generally 

 are due to special organisms in the blood, the periodic 

 activity of which accounts for regularity of recurrence of 

 the disorder. Thus, ague in man is due to Spirochgete, 

 which is supposed to be a bacterian organism, and certain 

 intermittent disorders affecting the ox have been described 

 as occurring in low districts which probably are attribu- 

 table to a similar cause. 



In the treatment of febrile affections nursing must 

 be resorted to with assiduity, the skin especially being 

 roused into activity by frictions. Stimulants, particularly 

 such as act upon the excretory organs, as nitrous ether, 

 may be used with benefit. The bowels may be acted 

 upon by a saline laxative. The stimulants check any 

 tendency to local disorder by equable diffusion of blood 

 and nervous energy. The beneficial effects of fresh air 

 must not be neglected in symptomatic cases. Though 



